Mastercard, Visa, Access, Barclaycard, Amex, JCB ...

[uunet!alias.com!rmartin@uunet.uu.net (Richard Martin)]

> Over the
> last couple of years I've noticed an increasing number of merchants who
> skip the signature check for small purchases; on a couple of occasions 
> recently I've even had my card returned to me BEFORE I'd signed the sales 
> voucher (exactly like the normal US practice). 
> Paul (who lurks no more).

   I worked a few years in a pharmacy (credentials established) and so
noticed that most customers will take it as a personal affront if anything
more than this cursory attention is paid to their credit card. It's a
North American phenomenon I can attest to, though whether it's much
different from European attitudes I cannot judge until I work retail
on the other side of the pond. (Read, hopefully never. Retail, that is. I
would like to work in Europe at some point. But I'd rather not be selling
Aspirin.)
   We had a few incidents with credit cards at the pharmacy, and would
generally be very pedantic about calling in anything over $75CAN (which is
<weeping as he considers the current exchange rate> about $60US) for
certification. When I first got there (about five years ago, now) there
were large, thousand-page flyers from the companies listing numbers of
stolen cards. I'm not sure if we were actually expected to stand there in
front of a customer and check in the book -- the circulars didn't last
long and were soon replaced by the more commonly used 1-800 number.
   Out of some interest, what do the "swipe" card verification systems
do? How much information do they read from the card and pass down the
telephone line? How much information would a tap of such a transmission
reveal?

Richard Martin.
<climbing back down into the little hole I've been occupying>

--
rmartin@alias.com - a228mart@cdf.toronto.edu - martinrd@gpu.utcc.toronto.edu
University of Toronto ChemPhysCompSci 9T7, Shad Valley Waterloo 1992 [svp942]